Raglan surf town.... ooh thats cold!!

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Leaving Hahei behind, we drove towards Raglan on the West coast. Raglan beach is famous for having one of the worlds longest lefthand breaks (surfer speak for waves coming into shore from the left I think!).
When we arrived at the Rainforest Lodge, there was so much booze going into the fridge we couldn't shut the door. A good sign of things to come. The lodge was really nice and had lots of facilities, and extras including a high ropes course and a flying fow (zipline). We had a laugh on this and managed not to fall or hurt ourselves despite going two at a time.
Those who had chosen to learn to surf were given 45 minutes of instruction in the 'Shed' then they went down to the beach to kit up. We followed in the Stray bus with the intention of going for a swim. In the end I was one of the few who went swimming along with the crazy Italian pair, Erica and her boyfriend Luca. Most of the surfers managed to stand up on their boards by the end of the afternoon, Stella winning the battle to be first to surf into the beach.

In the evening we joined forces with Emma and Robyn to cook a stir fry which was really tasty and worked out alot cheaper than having the meal cooked by the lodge resident chef. After much drinking and chatting, I went for a few pitch dark goes on the flying fox with Nicki and Lucy. Declined lucy's offer of a twin run as I think we'd have both ripped our clothes to shreds!

The following day, we headed inland towards Rotorua. The main activity of the day was caving at the Waitomo caves. We chose to do Tumu tumu tubing, which involved going down into the cave system in wetsuits, helmets and great white wellies. Our guide Onge (weird name I know!) was really good fun and took us through the caves and through the water which was sometimes up to our necks or deeper. I swam wherever possible but it was very, very cold.
At one point the caves opened out and we picked up truck tyre inner tubes to float down an underground stream. Sitting in our tubes, we switched off our headmounted torches and were able to see thousands of Glow-worms hanging from the ceiling. It was great to sit there in almost total darkness as our eyes got used to it, then we could see each other in the light from the glowworms.
One highlight for me was when I had to climb up two metres above the floor of the cave then jump backwards in my tube into a deep pool! Brrrrrhh!

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Photos

Tumu Tumu Tubing
Dynamic duo in rubber!

Tumu Tumu Tubing ii
Which way now?

Tumu Tumu Tubing iii
If he can fit, so can I!